ELECTRIC BILL - URGENT ACTION REQUIRED

Dear All,

I imagine you have all received the bill from Peverl with the service charge adjustment in the region of an extra £ 500 (for a 2 bed flat ) to b paid in full by next month ...

The majority of this amount is due to an unexpected ( = miscalculated ) electricity bill. From a quick look it appears that Hanover which is usually budgeted for 10 K has now received an 80K electricity bill to pay.

I believe we should take collective action and refuse to pay this adjustment until proper clarification is obtained from Peverel. I have called them yesterday and they said the amount will be taken next month.

I HAVE THEREFORE PROVISIONALLY SUSPENDED MY DIRECT DEBIT PAYMENT UNTIL CLARITY IS OBTAINED - PLEASE DO THE SAME IMMEDIATELY.

My objections are 3:

1- I would like to see these bills in great detail. I have already made a rough calculation that doesn't justify an 80K bill. This is only giving us a ball park figure and, although I believe it is right, you can not take it officially as I have run it out of my mind without any figures or data from St George

Permanent lighting

WE have 7 light bulbs per floor of 28 watts each = 200 watts

14 floors = 3000 W ;    24 hours = 72 KW;      365 days = 26K.000 KW   5 years = 131.000 KW

Assuming an average KW cost of 15 pence, the cost for running permanent lighting over 5 years is only

20.000 pounds. This is already raising the suspicion that we can't have spent 130.000 pounds electricity in 5 years.

Of course there are the lifts ( I am not that clever to calculate their consumptions just like that unfortunately) and they are very power hungry. But not used all the time I guess ?

There is the occasional use of vacuum cleaners. Some machinery I am not aware of perhaps ...

This is why I would like to have those charges demonstrated to us and the bill discussed with EDF before even considering paying.

2 - My second point is if it is professionally acceptable from Peverel to ask us to be liable for effectively their mismanagement of the charges dating back 5 years ago. If they forgot to have the meter read for 5 years this tells us a lot about theifr efficiency. Aren't they entitled to have a service charge adjustment only for the previous year? What is the penalty that they are going to pay for their mistake? Points we need to discuss and perhaps try to add this to the law case that our neighbours are taking to court against Peverel ( on that front, everybody, please please try to support them as much as you can, join the SGWRA. This week is the deadline to send the form that allows them to represent you in court. These guys are doing an amazing job going through Peverel's accounts and fighting them)

3 -  My third point is asking if it is appropriate for Peverel to ask immediate payment of that amount. Not only it is unfair as we don't budget for things like that and some of us would not have access to it immediately, but this appears to be the produce of their mismanagement so at least don't be arrogant when asking fro the payment ... 

These are just my just thoughts and I am not sure how we should approach PEverel about this yet so we need to discuss but it is important that we all take action and that we are seen united on this front.

Alex

F 592

a_galli@yahoo.com

Comments

[Imran]

I finally received an email back from Consort. These people have no idea how to handle things. They left most questions unanswered. What is our legal position on this?

[Reshma]

Dear All,

I am absolutely disgusted with the mismanagement of Consort/Peverel. I agree with Alex's points and would also state that as residents, should not be liable to cover the points set out in their recent letter.

I would also like to agree that we should only be liable for the past year's expenses and not the four years prior to this. In addition, we should not be expected to cover the costs of repair for the leaking balconies which have been a problem throughout the building. As a responsible management agency, COnsort should have taken out an adequate insurance policy- in any case surely this should have been covered by the NHBC given that the building dates from 2005.

We must provide a united front and refuse to cough up-personally having just forked out the six month service charge I am not in a position to find and £500 or so on their say so.

Reshma
F596

[Alex]

Hello,

more thoughts on this. I bumped into a lift engineer downstairs ( PIP) and asked him to give me a figure of energy consumption for a lift in constant operation ( = going up and down ) for an hour. He said it s around 2000 kw / hour. I can take no responsibility if the figure is completely wrong but it sounds credible to me. Another simple calculation ...
Assuming one lift is always running for 2 hours AM, 1 hours noon, 2 hours eve ( all averaging out ) it would be a total of 10 KW consumption per day.

10 * 365 = 3650 x 5 years = say 18000 kw/h
@ £ 0.15 / kw is £ 3240 per lift of energy costs.

Even assuming some of the data is not precise, it appears that we are miles away from the alleged £ 140 K energy consumption that we seem to have been billed over 5 years.
We need Peverel to show us bills and to explain how this is possible. We should also be entitled to to discuss this with EDF.

Is it possible that St George wired up the construction of Jellicos, Kestrel and Kingfisher to our meters? Or of Tesco ?
The figures don't appear to make any sense, unless my calculations are completely wrong ...

[Tom]

Right, just spoke to the f*ckers at Peverel. What I have been told is that; 1. specific complaints on how the bill is derived have to be sent by e-mail so that it can be passed on to the right person/people
2. If we do not pay the additional bill seperately it will be added on to our direct debit automatically and split across the reamaning months to Jan 2011, i.e. divided by 6 and added on to each month.

I will be writing an e-mail to complain, which I think I will use some of Alex's points for, and I suggest others do the same.

I am slightly dubious about cancelling my direct debit but may resort to that if it is the only way!

Anyone know where we stand legally?

[Nige]

Keep us posted on how you get on Tom.

[Tom]

Alex,

I agree with your points above, only a small comment.

My understanding is that the charge will not be carried forward on our direct debits. My letter says that if the debit is over £10 I have to make seperate arrangements for payment. I did just try and call Consort to confirm this (and complain generally) but could not get through to anyone.....